History of Rangers F.C. - Return of Wallace

Return of Wallace

Rangers hoped to rekindle success by bringing Jock Wallace back to the club, following his exile in England with Leicester City. Wallace, though, was not the club's first choice: Jim McLean and Alex Ferguson, the then managers of the New Firm clubs, both rebuffed Rangers' advances. McLean's brother Tommy was appointed caretaker manager and four games passed before a permanent manager was in position.

On 10 November 1983, Jock Wallace was persuaded by the Rangers board to leave Motherwell and return to the club. His aim was to restore the glory years of the treble-winning sides of the late 1970s. Wallace's initial impact was positive, boosting morale and fitness. He made changes to the coaching staff, bringing in Alex Totten as first team coach with Tommy McLean, David Provan and Joe Mason leaving. Wallace also added to the squad during the season, Bobby Williamson arrived from Clydebank, Nicky Walker from old club Motherwell and Stuart Munro from Alloa Athletic.

Wallace's first match in command was at Pittodrie on 12 November 1983. The game ended in a 3–0 defeat but the side went on a 22 match unbeaten run in all competitions until March 1984. Yet, Rangers still ended that season fourth in the league, fifteen points behind champions Aberdeen. The club did win a trophy, the 1984 Scottish League Cup. It was a thrilling extra time victory over Celtic, with Ally McCoist getting a hat-tick, in a 3–2 win that won them the cup.

The 1984–85 season, Wallace's first full season in charge since his return, was almost a carbon copy of its predecessor. Rangers again finished fourth in the league but it was by a record twenty-one point margin behind champions Aberdeen. This disappointing performance was not caused due to a lack of investment in the playing squad. A total of £495,000 was spent bringing in Iain Ferguson and Cammy Fraser from Dundee, Ted McMinn from Queen of the South and bringing back Derek Johnstone from Chelsea. The club won the Scottish League Cup for the second season in a row defeating Dundee United in the final. A solitary Iain Ferguson strike gave Rangers a 1–0 win.

A reasonable start was made to Wallace's second full season in charge. Five wins out of six matches in the league plus a further two wins in the League Cup. However, things quickly began to sour as a fall out between manager and then club captain, John McClelland saw the latter stripped of the captaincy. McClelland was soon sold to Watford in November 1985 for £265,000. The Ulsterman was missed and the team's form was to suffer. By the turn of the year Rangers were in third position in the league. From 1 January 1986, the side won only a quarter of the remaining sixteen league fixtures. With no hope of a trophy, after defeats in the Scottish Cup third round and the League Cup semi-final, things looked bleak for the club.

So perhaps it came as no surprise that on 7 April 1986, Jock Wallace resigned as manager of the club. He was to jump before being pushed by the then newly appointed Rangers chairman David Holmes. Holmes had gone on record saying that the slump the club was in could not be allowed to go on.

Wallace's side might have won the League Cup twice in a row, but the league form remained indifferent. The continuing dominance of the great Aberdeen side of the 1980s, coupled with strong Dundee United and Celtic teams that offered periodic challenges to Aberdeen's ascendancy, placed Wallace under increasing pressure. By the 1985–86 season Rangers had slipped to fifth place in the league and, with little evidence of improvement since the Greig era, it was inevitable that Wallace would be removed as manager. However, the search for Wallace's replacement was a brief one.